In the push toward virtual work and cloud-based applications over the past two years, optimizing Microsoft Teams has become both a challenge and a necessity for organizations. The increasing demand for organizations to adopt Microsoft Teams has not only accelerated throughout the pandemic, it has also evolved into a necessity with Microsoft Teams’ ability to help organizations build a workplace culture of connection and collaboration in online spaces.

No one can deny the vast potential of productivity, efficiency, and collaboration provided by Microsoft Teams. However, for organizations that are excited by this potential and hastily deploy Microsoft Teams, an important lesson is immediately learned: deploying Microsoft Teams is merely the first step and optimizing Microsoft Teams is an entirely different obstacle to overcome.

This article provides three helpful tips if your organization is like many that find themselves saying, “We deployed Microsoft Teams and it’s a mess. Now what?”

We will help you build upon your Microsoft Teams governance strategy and get a handle on your Microsoft Teams deployment, taming the Wild West of Teams that feels like a labyrinth of never-ending channels, users, and content.

1. Identify symptoms of a messy Microsoft Teams environment

 For many organizations, the rush to cloud-based applications was done out of necessity at the beginning of the pandemic, and these tools were typically set up quickly to keep organizations moving rather than as part of a larger, deliberate strategy.

Common symptoms or complaints from employees who feel overwhelmed by Microsoft Teams include:

• Too many channels,
• Too many notifications,
• Too much unnecessary information for their work, and
• They can’t find the information they are looking for.

All the above symptoms relate to the importance of establishing a positive UX for your employees. Many organizations overlook the importance of ensuring employees are able to control their own UX within Microsoft Teams.

2. Empower Employees to Take Control of Their UX

If an employee feels they are a part of too many teams, they can remove themselves and ensure they are only parts of teams for which they are contributing members. If they feel they are receiving too many channel notifications, they can hide or unfollow certain channels, ensuring they are only “following” channels from which they want to receive notifications. If certain information is inaccessible, they can “pin” certain teams/channels/folders, so their UX is tailored to their specific workflows. They can also hide information that they feel is unnecessary to their work.

In short, a key to fully optimizing Microsoft Teams for a positive UX is to make sure each employee is trained on Microsoft Team self-service: how to adjust their settings, control notifications, and be empowered to take control of their own experience.

3. Implement Solutions Like ProvisionPoint to Optimize Your UX

The trial and error involved with a user perpetually configuring their Microsoft Teams UX can be daunting and time-consuming before they reach a satisfying UX. This is why solutions such as ProvisionPoint 365 are so important for optimizing Microsoft Teams.

ProvisionPoint 365 can bring you closer to optimizing Microsoft Teams by:

• Assisting with ways teams and channels are created, using what ProvisionPoint calls Service Definitions. These Service Definitions place less onus on the “owner” of a team by providing flexible templates to help define a workspace.
• Structuring and managing information through optimized files and folders that can be customized for your organizations’ specific needs.
• Establishing governance and lifecycle management processes, limiting the risk of “information sprawl” by adhering to lifecycle rules that make it easy to restrict or extend the lifecycle of features within Teams.

ProvisionPoint 365 helps strike a balance between proper governance of Microsoft Teams and empowering employees to take responsibility for their digital workspaces.

How Elantis Can Help

Elantis is a proud partner of ProvisionPoint Limited, a UK company specialized in workspace governance solutions for Microsoft 365. If some of the above steps seem daunting for your Microsoft Teams governance strategy, Elantis can help. As a ProvisionPoint Certified Partner, Elantis can help you drive adoption of Microsoft 365 and solve your governance challenges.

If you’d like to know more about what you should do after deploying Microsoft Teams, please register for the “Microsoft Teams: Taming the Wild West” webinar we are co-hosting with ProvisionPoint on July 27th, where we will discuss how to manage governance, administration, content sharing, and more!